Tracks News - In this section you'll find news from cities around the country as well as interviews and general reporting on issues. It might be from a newspaper or a blog, but it counts as news.

TRANSPORT

Twin Cities: Snelling Ave to Get Rapid Bus Line

Pioneer Press

Metro Transit officials envision a new "rapid bus" route that would mostly travel along Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, starting at the 46th Street light-rail transit station in Minneapolis and ending at the Rosedale transit center...Read On

International: Red to Yellow, Angers Chinese Drivers

Washington Post

Drivers in China are seeing red over a new crackdown on running through intersections when the lights are yellow...Read On

National: Transit Agencies Using Social Media (Webinar)

Mass Transit Magazine

The webinar explored the use of social media among transit agencies in the United States and Canada. Research findings were drawn from a literature review, a survey of transportation organizations, and six follow-up case studies. Topics included how transit agencies use social media to engage with customers and community, resource requirements, obstacles encountered, case studies and lessons learned...Read On

International: The London Underground at 150

Guardian UK

We Londoners moan about the Tube as freely as we breathe, but with the underground railway fast approaching 150 years of age we should take a break from carping and reflect on how lucky we are...Read On

International: New Subway Routes Open to the Public

China Daily

Beijing expands underground rail transit system to ease severe road congestion. Beijing opened a new subway line and extensions of three others on Sunday, marking a step forward in the capital's efforts to expand its rail transit system to ease severe traffic congestion...Read On

International: Cemeteries Moving Due to Freeway

CNN

Millie Phuah arrived at Singapore's Bukit Brown cemetery on a humid morning, armed with a rake and gloves to clear fallen branches and decaying leaves from her ancestors' graves...Read On

Los Angeles: City Once Had Cable Cars Too

KCET

Although best known today for whisking tourists up San Francisco's hilly streets, cable cars were once a widely used public transit solution in cities across the United States, including Los Angeles...Read On

Los Angeles: Tunnel Under Sepulveda Faster w Private $

Daily News (via Streetsblog LA)

Lacking the billions of dollars needed to build the Sepulveda Pass Corridor, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering partnering with the private sector to ease the flow of traffic in one of the most congested stretches of highway in the country...Read On

Research: Does Public Transit Increase Econ Efficiency

Journal of Transportation and Land Use

This paper explores the relationship between the scale of public transit services in urban areas of the U.S. and the efficiency of those economies, with efficiency measured by commercial office rents...Read On

Research: Built Environment Affects Travel Behavior

Journal of Transportation and Land Use

Mixed findings have been reported in previous research regarding the impact of built environment on travel behavior, i.e. statistically and practically significant effects found in a number of empirical studies and insignificant correlations shown in many other studies...Read On

URBANISM | HOUSING | CITIES | ENVIRONMENT

International: Developers Hop on London Crossrail

Wall Street Journal (via @bruce_katz)

Throughout the London region, construction crews are burrowing tunnels, laying track and beginning to build new stations as part of the largest addition to the city's public transportation system since World War II...Read On

Virginia: Tyson's Corner on Verge of Do Over

Washington Post

The first thing to go was the parking lot behind the Container Store. And if all goes according to plan, more lots will be bulldozed - as will dozens of mid-rise office buildings, hotels and car dealerships...Read On

Boston: Report Highlights Orange Line Opportunities

Wicked Local

The Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) are looking to create transit-oriented developments along the Orange Line Corridor...Read On

International: Hong Kong Parking Bubble Growing

Los Angeles Times (via Bill S)

The hottest properties in this frenetic city have no walls, windows or even front doors. Forget condos, apartments and homes...Read On

Atlanta: City to Tackle Underground

Atlanta Journal Constitution

As thousands of revelers descend on Underground Atlanta tonight to celebrate the new year, city officials are vowing a new focus in 2013 on how to make the 12-acre attraction more appealing when there's no plummeting peach to cheer...Read On

Cleveland: Uptown Development Offers Lessons

Cleveland Plain Dealer

The widely praised Uptown development in University Circle, which has transformed an urban dead zone at the edge of Case Western Reserve University, is about to get even better as it quickly heads into its second phase with more housing and retail...Read On

Austin: Vibrant Cities Start with Pedestrians

Austin American Statesman

If you grew up, as I did, in a pedestrian city, much of Jeff Speck's "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time" falls into the category of no-brainer...Read On

San Diego: Barrio Logan Grapples With Its Future

Voice of San Diego

Sometime in mid-2013, the City Council could approve the Barrio Logan community update, making it the first San Diego neighborhood to reach that point since the city overhauled its approach to growth and development in 2008...Read On

Tucson: At Long Last, Downtown Revitalizing

Inside Tucson Business

Downtown Tucson is looking up, pun intended. After what has been decades of neglect and decline, a renaissance is happening...Read On

Jeff Wood, Reconnecting America's New Media Director and Chief Cartographer, collects news stories and blog posts about transit and transit-oriented development from around the country and posts them at TheDirectTransfer.com. Jeff then takes the top 10 articles in each of five categories and sends that out as Other Side of the Tracks email newsletter. The content of that email is then posted here.